Transparency News 6/16/15
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
State and Local Stories
For the second time, the Supreme Court of Virginia has refused to take up an appeal from a former Richmond principal who sued parents over a letter that criticized her performance.
Denise Lewis, a former principal of Lucille M. Brown Middle School, filed the $3 million defamation lawsuit early last year against four parents of students involved in Lucille Brown’s International Baccalaureate program. A Richmond Circuit Court judge threw out the suit in August, and the Supreme Court denied Lewis’ appeal earlier this year. On Friday, the high court refused another request from Lewis to rehear the case. The letter, which raised concerns about the school’s climate and leadership, was sent to school system leaders and was later published online by Style Weekly. Two of the parents named in the suit, Wendy and Todd Martin, released a statement Friday thanking their attorneys and calling for stronger laws to speed up the process of identifying and dismissing frivolous lawsuits. The Martins said they feel the lawsuit was an example of a SLAPP suit, a strategic lawsuit against public participation.
Times-Dispatch
Rockingham County is poised to pay a Denver advertising firm just under $100,000 to create websites for its tourism and economic development departments and bolster its branding in those arenas. Although that may seem like a steep price to pay, Assistant County Administrator George Anas says he sees it as “an absolute strength.” “I think having outside eyes looking in creates an interesting sense of objectivity as it relates to building these tools and their experience in these two industries [tourism and economic development],” he said. Anas is part of the committee of county officials that reviewed 13 submitted proposals and awarded the bid to Denver-based Atlas Advertising in April. He said Atlas will likely build a new version of the county’s economic development website, which hasn’t been updated in several years, and a new tourism website — something the county does not have — for about $10,500 each. The total cost of the bid, which includes the two websites and new logos, taglines and style guides, is $77,000. An additional $20,000 would fund a two-year “tactical marketing plan,” Anas said, which would take the new marketing tools and incorporate them to areas tied to Rockingham County such as agriculture, cybersecurity and biosciences.
Daily News Record
National Stories
A government data warehouse that stores information indefinitely on millions of HealthCare.govcustomers is raising privacy concerns at a time when major breaches have become distressingly common. Known as MIDAS, the system is described on a federal website as the “perpetual central repository” for information collected under President Barack Obama's health care law. “Data in MIDAS is maintained indefinitely at this time,” says a government privacy assessment dated Jan. 15. The information stored includes names, Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, phone numbers, passport numbers, employment status and financial accounts. The vast scope of the data — and the lack of a clear plan for destroying old records — have raised concerns about privacy and the government's judgment on technology.
News Virginian
Minnesota Sen. John Marty knows his bill calling for more openness at the state legislature isn’t going anywhere this year. He introduced it at Friday’s special session anyway, just to make a point. “I have lots of problems with the way our democracy is headed in terms of money in politics, how many things are done behind closed doors,” the Roseville DFLer [sic] said last week, a day before lawmakers were called back to the Capitol. Two hundred and one legislators are asked to vote on bills most haven’t read, that were “negotiated by about three people,” he said. Floor sessions, committee and subcommittee meetings of the Legislature are open to the public, but not the meetings between House and Senate leaders and the governor that have left the public on the governor’s residence lawn in recent weeks.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
It could take weeks for the University of Illinois to review the nearly 10,000 documents ordered released by a Champaign County judge in the Steven Salaita case, a UI spokeswoman said Friday. And it’s unclear what information might be “redacted,” or deleted, once the documents are released, based on lawyers’ arguments Friday. Presiding Judge Thomas Difanis ordered the UI to turn over thousands of pages of documents sought by Salaita under the Freedom of Information Act. Salaita is hoping to prove that donors upset with his angry tweets about Israel influenced the UI’s decision to withdraw his job, which the UI denies. Difanis said the public interest in knowing whether outside influence was involved in the hiring decision outweighed the university’s claim that producing the documents was “unduly burdensome.”
(Champaign) News-Gazette
Now that new net neutrality rules are in effect, the Federal Communications Commission has appointed a new ombudsperson to field any complaints. Parul Desai, an FCC staffer in the consumer division, has been named the new handler of net neutrality complaints, the agency announced Monday afternoon.
Re/code
The Internal Revenue Service sees mid-September as the earliest point it will conclude reviewing the missing emails recovered from Lois Lerner, the protagonist in an ongoing scandal over what the agency has called inappropriate targeting of conservative organizations. The IRS made the date known in a court filing ordered by a federal judge in response to a lawsuit by the conservative group Judicial Watch. That group sued the IRS in October 2013 for access to emails, including the now-recovered missing emails. Late Monday, Judicial Watch released the IRS’s court-ordered response. In it, the IRS tells the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the recovered emails are in the possession of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which it notes is conducting a criminal probe into the lost Lerner emails. The inspector general, said IRS lawyers, “will not honor any requests from the Service to obtain recovered emails at an earlier time.”
McClatchy
The Washington Teachers’ Union and open-government advocates are urging the D.C. Council to slow down a vote that would curb access to information related to teacher evaluations, one of the most controversial aspects of the District’s education reform efforts. A proposed amendment included in the Budget Support Act that the council is scheduled to vote on June 30 would block public-record requests for individual education evaluations, “effectiveness ratings,” observations and other assessments. Summary or aggregate data would still be available for public release. District officials said that current laws protect personal information of teachers in D.C. Public Schools and that the measure is designed to protect charter school employees. Elizabeth Davis, president of the WTU, said the wording of the measure is confusing and potentially could have broad effects, including limiting the union’s ability to represent its members.
Washington Post
Editorials/Columns
The DOC says it shouldn’t be required to reveal, say, the schematics for the unit at the Greensville Correctional Center where executions take place. It says that could compromise the prison’s security. Fine. Probably most of us would agree that diagrams for electrical and security systems not be revealed, in case criminals at some point might use the data to stage a cinema-worthy prison attack to free a heinous killer. But other information ought to be available, including the drugs used in lethal injections and details on the operation of the electric chair. These are issues that speak directly to public policy. How Virginia administers the death penalty and whether executions are carried out in the most humane manner possible are very much matters of public interest. After all, it’s public tax money — your money — that’s being used. The DOC has a history of non-cooperation on issues of public information. It’s hard not to see this as just part of that pattern. Information about how executions are conducted is part of the public debate and is necessary for ensuring that executions are conducted humanely. The DOC should stop resisting efforts to hold it accountable, and release the information.
Daily Progress
Like any self-respecting liberal outfit, The New York Times thinks the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United was an atrocity. The case revolved around whether the government could forbid an incorporated group, Citizens United, to broadcast a movie critical of Hillary Clinton in the days leading up to an election. Given the obvious free-speech implications — could the government also ban a book? yes, said the government’s lawyer — the high court ruled that the law being challenged violated the First Amendment. Even dissenting Justice John Paul Stevens conceded “we have long since held that corporations are covered by the First Amendment,” but he thought the campaign finance law being challenged should take precedence. That law was the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which prohibited “electioneering communications” — those supporting or opposing political candidates — by corporations and labor unions 30 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election. But it contained a whopping exception for the media, by exempting electioneering communications “appearing in a news story, commentary, or editorial.” The exception amounts to a confession of what those who condemn the influence of money in politics deny: that campaign-finance laws infringe on freedom of speech and the press. After all: If they did not do so, then there would be no need for an exception. Proposals to amend the Constitution to overthrow Citizens United also contain specific exceptions for the media. The question is: why?
A. Barton Hinkle, Times-Dispatch
State and Local Stories
For the second time, the Supreme Court of Virginia has refused to take up an appeal from a former Richmond principal who sued parents over a letter that criticized her performance.
Denise Lewis, a former principal of Lucille M. Brown Middle School, filed the $3 million defamation lawsuit early last year against four parents of students involved in Lucille Brown’s International Baccalaureate program. A Richmond Circuit Court judge threw out the suit in August, and the Supreme Court denied Lewis’ appeal earlier this year. On Friday, the high court refused another request from Lewis to rehear the case. The letter, which raised concerns about the school’s climate and leadership, was sent to school system leaders and was later published online by Style Weekly. Two of the parents named in the suit, Wendy and Todd Martin, released a statement Friday thanking their attorneys and calling for stronger laws to speed up the process of identifying and dismissing frivolous lawsuits. The Martins said they feel the lawsuit was an example of a SLAPP suit, a strategic lawsuit against public participation.
Times-Dispatch
Rockingham County is poised to pay a Denver advertising firm just under $100,000 to create websites for its tourism and economic development departments and bolster its branding in those arenas. Although that may seem like a steep price to pay, Assistant County Administrator George Anas says he sees it as “an absolute strength.” “I think having outside eyes looking in creates an interesting sense of objectivity as it relates to building these tools and their experience in these two industries [tourism and economic development],” he said. Anas is part of the committee of county officials that reviewed 13 submitted proposals and awarded the bid to Denver-based Atlas Advertising in April. He said Atlas will likely build a new version of the county’s economic development website, which hasn’t been updated in several years, and a new tourism website — something the county does not have — for about $10,500 each. The total cost of the bid, which includes the two websites and new logos, taglines and style guides, is $77,000. An additional $20,000 would fund a two-year “tactical marketing plan,” Anas said, which would take the new marketing tools and incorporate them to areas tied to Rockingham County such as agriculture, cybersecurity and biosciences.
Daily News Record
National Stories
A government data warehouse that stores information indefinitely on millions of HealthCare.govcustomers is raising privacy concerns at a time when major breaches have become distressingly common. Known as MIDAS, the system is described on a federal website as the “perpetual central repository” for information collected under President Barack Obama's health care law. “Data in MIDAS is maintained indefinitely at this time,” says a government privacy assessment dated Jan. 15. The information stored includes names, Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, phone numbers, passport numbers, employment status and financial accounts. The vast scope of the data — and the lack of a clear plan for destroying old records — have raised concerns about privacy and the government's judgment on technology.
News Virginian
Minnesota Sen. John Marty knows his bill calling for more openness at the state legislature isn’t going anywhere this year. He introduced it at Friday’s special session anyway, just to make a point. “I have lots of problems with the way our democracy is headed in terms of money in politics, how many things are done behind closed doors,” the Roseville DFLer [sic] said last week, a day before lawmakers were called back to the Capitol. Two hundred and one legislators are asked to vote on bills most haven’t read, that were “negotiated by about three people,” he said. Floor sessions, committee and subcommittee meetings of the Legislature are open to the public, but not the meetings between House and Senate leaders and the governor that have left the public on the governor’s residence lawn in recent weeks.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
It could take weeks for the University of Illinois to review the nearly 10,000 documents ordered released by a Champaign County judge in the Steven Salaita case, a UI spokeswoman said Friday. And it’s unclear what information might be “redacted,” or deleted, once the documents are released, based on lawyers’ arguments Friday. Presiding Judge Thomas Difanis ordered the UI to turn over thousands of pages of documents sought by Salaita under the Freedom of Information Act. Salaita is hoping to prove that donors upset with his angry tweets about Israel influenced the UI’s decision to withdraw his job, which the UI denies. Difanis said the public interest in knowing whether outside influence was involved in the hiring decision outweighed the university’s claim that producing the documents was “unduly burdensome.”
(Champaign) News-Gazette
Now that new net neutrality rules are in effect, the Federal Communications Commission has appointed a new ombudsperson to field any complaints. Parul Desai, an FCC staffer in the consumer division, has been named the new handler of net neutrality complaints, the agency announced Monday afternoon.
Re/code
The Internal Revenue Service sees mid-September as the earliest point it will conclude reviewing the missing emails recovered from Lois Lerner, the protagonist in an ongoing scandal over what the agency has called inappropriate targeting of conservative organizations. The IRS made the date known in a court filing ordered by a federal judge in response to a lawsuit by the conservative group Judicial Watch. That group sued the IRS in October 2013 for access to emails, including the now-recovered missing emails. Late Monday, Judicial Watch released the IRS’s court-ordered response. In it, the IRS tells the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the recovered emails are in the possession of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which it notes is conducting a criminal probe into the lost Lerner emails. The inspector general, said IRS lawyers, “will not honor any requests from the Service to obtain recovered emails at an earlier time.”
McClatchy
The Washington Teachers’ Union and open-government advocates are urging the D.C. Council to slow down a vote that would curb access to information related to teacher evaluations, one of the most controversial aspects of the District’s education reform efforts. A proposed amendment included in the Budget Support Act that the council is scheduled to vote on June 30 would block public-record requests for individual education evaluations, “effectiveness ratings,” observations and other assessments. Summary or aggregate data would still be available for public release. District officials said that current laws protect personal information of teachers in D.C. Public Schools and that the measure is designed to protect charter school employees. Elizabeth Davis, president of the WTU, said the wording of the measure is confusing and potentially could have broad effects, including limiting the union’s ability to represent its members.
Washington Post
Editorials/Columns
The DOC says it shouldn’t be required to reveal, say, the schematics for the unit at the Greensville Correctional Center where executions take place. It says that could compromise the prison’s security. Fine. Probably most of us would agree that diagrams for electrical and security systems not be revealed, in case criminals at some point might use the data to stage a cinema-worthy prison attack to free a heinous killer. But other information ought to be available, including the drugs used in lethal injections and details on the operation of the electric chair. These are issues that speak directly to public policy. How Virginia administers the death penalty and whether executions are carried out in the most humane manner possible are very much matters of public interest. After all, it’s public tax money — your money — that’s being used. The DOC has a history of non-cooperation on issues of public information. It’s hard not to see this as just part of that pattern. Information about how executions are conducted is part of the public debate and is necessary for ensuring that executions are conducted humanely. The DOC should stop resisting efforts to hold it accountable, and release the information.
Daily Progress
Like any self-respecting liberal outfit, The New York Times thinks the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United was an atrocity. The case revolved around whether the government could forbid an incorporated group, Citizens United, to broadcast a movie critical of Hillary Clinton in the days leading up to an election. Given the obvious free-speech implications — could the government also ban a book? yes, said the government’s lawyer — the high court ruled that the law being challenged violated the First Amendment. Even dissenting Justice John Paul Stevens conceded “we have long since held that corporations are covered by the First Amendment,” but he thought the campaign finance law being challenged should take precedence. That law was the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which prohibited “electioneering communications” — those supporting or opposing political candidates — by corporations and labor unions 30 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election. But it contained a whopping exception for the media, by exempting electioneering communications “appearing in a news story, commentary, or editorial.” The exception amounts to a confession of what those who condemn the influence of money in politics deny: that campaign-finance laws infringe on freedom of speech and the press. After all: If they did not do so, then there would be no need for an exception. Proposals to amend the Constitution to overthrow Citizens United also contain specific exceptions for the media. The question is: why?
A. Barton Hinkle, Times-Dispatch
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